After the game, Keith Jones simply said, "The right team won" and Mike Milbury offered, "I agree."

Fox Sports Detroit's crew is baffled as to why Gustav Nyquist was boarded face-first and the game-winner--which went off Niklas Kronwall's skate--resulted.

Update: to me, the officiating was terrible on both sides--all series long--and I know, Datsyuk and Franzen never appeared offensively, I know, too many mistakes were made by the mistake-prone defense, I know, the Wings desperately needed more puck movement, more depth scoring, more desire to engage the Hawks head-on instead of skating BY them or AROUND them...

But the hockey world is going to insist that this game was won by the hockey gods, that the RIGHT team won, and that's bullshit.

Update #2: Devastating.

The Wings gave up three games...But I can't help but feeling that losing Game 1 was what turned the tide, oddly enough...

Did the Wings choke?

I don't know.

Did the Wings let the Hawks off the mat, and did they never really respond or regain their composure once they let the battleship that was Chicago get into a gunfight with the little PT boat that was the Wings?

Yes.

Did the Wings give up that all-important first goal and first goal far too early, to Patrick Sharp? Yes.

Did the Wings seem to be overwhelmed and out-everythinged during the first 30 minutes? Yes.

Did their special teams stink? Yes. 1 for 24. Terrible.

But that third period was one of the ages. Henrik Zetterberg played amazing hockey. The team stepped up despite losing Valtteri Filppula and it played wonderfully.

And after Nyquist was boarded and Kronwall accidentally tipped the puck past his own goalie in OT...

They shook hands with their opponents like a classy team with a bright future and owned up to not playing well enough, regardless of what the officiating did or did not mean to the course of the game.

Gut instincts are usually pretty reliable. There’s now way to know what that ref was thinking when he blew the whistle, so the debate becomes just a matter of opinion on when a ref should blow the whistle during a scrum between two guys or not.

And my gut instincts say Nyquist wasn’t boarded. He was sideways when he was mashed into the boards.

I don’t have any bitterness in me. I was ready for a loss tonight, it was evident in their play as the series went on. They lost whatever it was that allowed them to stifle the Ducks and be better than the Hawks early in the series, whatever allowed them to win their last 4 games, their first 4 game win streak, and squeak into the playoffs.

That’s just how good they were this year, and it was fine. Next year should be better. I’m excited. As long as the right players are on the roster, and we all know who they are…there’s no reason we shouldn’t expect good things.

Although, to get a bit more serious…personnel isn’t as important as the system. We’ve seen all kinds of players help out over the years. We’ve talked about this countless times, especially this year. For the Red Wings to be successful next year, for them to not have a roller coaster 82 game season next year, puck possession needs to return to form. It is absolutely imperative that the mistakes that have dogged the Wings for a few years now, especially this year with growing pains, go away. Less turnovers, less hopeful chip plays up the boards, less low percentage shots, retrieving rebounds, hitting at the right time and not tangling up with the opposition more than you have to, so that you can get the puck. The puck must be the priority.

I’m tired of NBC and their prickish tendencies and outrageous favoritism towards certain teams. As I said in the LB, they’re NOT getting a number out of this house on any of their NHL broadcasts until the Wings return in September. Goddamn this fuching league.

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 05/29/13 at 10:22 PM ET

I could not be prouder of the Wings, unbelievable effort. NBC crew is an embarrassment, their homerism was a disgrace. I wish I had CBC.

Twice in a row, they let guys go into the slot with no one covering them. But all game long they had trouble covering Blackhawks players, routinely allowing attacking players to go around or through defenders, not to mention an absurd number of odd-man situations* for a game 7. I said before the series that if it went to 7 games, the Red Wings would win. I amended that to include the possibility of the Red Wings shooting themselves. Doing nothing for the first 40 minutes and somehow managing to get fewer shots on goal in the last 20 than the first 20 counts as shooting oneself, methinks.

Wings kept it low scoring, I liked their chances.
Kronwall won’t sleep tonight with the puck going off his skate on the goal.
Sad, definitely. Up 3 to 1 in games, but playing well in the 3rd period this time.
Disappointed? No.
If you asked me in March if I’d be happy with the Wings season going to overtime in Game 7 with a chance to beat the Presidents Cup winner? I’d take it in a heartbeat.
We’ll soon find out where the injuries were and how bad.
Let’s hope Datsyuk’s staying.
Patrick Kane said it was (one of the?) hardest series he’s ever played in.
Actually, not sure how well I’ll sleep tonight.
Feel drained right now.

Personally, I’m goddamn proud of that effort tonight. Detroit was totally over matched in this series and pushed it to the absolute brink. After they failed to win it in the 3rd I figured OT would see the Hawks prevail…even after that idiotic call on the no goal.

Oh…and if you think that more grit from the forward position would have changed the outcome of this series you’re cracked. Start with the backend and work your way up.

I hope you didn’t read that into my comment. For THIS series, they were outclassed on defense. That’s why I said they need defense more. For NEXT year, they need more grit in the East (and Holland is already on record that those are his 3 targets: top defenseman, top forward on offense, and a physical player for the East—the question is whether he can get all 3).

NBC IS terrible and unfortunately the senile old fart on CBC sounds like he is announcing tape delay on his own broadcast…the only thing worse is the optimistic, glass half full, we’ll get ‘em next time BS ‘fans’ like CrimsonPhoenix start churning out! This Wings team won games 2-4 by jumping up and taking the game to Chicago and its ONLY when the Wings/Babbchoke start playing that fatalistic bend but don’t break, playing not to lose that is straight out of all state of Michigan teams playbook! I don’t care who they are playing, a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup playoffs is a strangle hold and its criminal the way, this or ANY Wings team, choked it away! Its the effort in much of the series that makes the rest of it, so damn infuriating/frustrating!!!!
So yeah, I AM bitter…I am angry…I am freakin’ po’ed!

I think the Wings played their hearts out this playoffs and I’m very proud of the team. Up and down the line-up, I think everyone showed up.

It’s tough to lose to Chicago of all teams, especially seeing as this is the end of the rivalry, unless they meet in the Finals.

Game 7 was up for grabs. The right team, didn’t win this series, it turned out to be a coin toss.

Should we have closed Chicago out after taking 3-1 series lead? One would have to say so, but we didn’t and I think that can be chalked up to lack of experience in our roster. Our D was very young and our entire 3rd line were rookies.

I think Detroit exposed Chicago’s weakness in that if you can pressure their backend their advantage can evaporate. I did notice that the games in which Detroit won, Chicago’s defense were making mistakes and especially Keith was playing poorly. He picked his game up hugely for games 5-6-7, it was pretty clear.

Doubt it…as optimistic as I am for the future, this year-THIS series, after being up 3-1, was a historical meltdown that we will never be allowed to un-remember…and despite the brave faces and pleasant player tweets, I am as angry and disappointed with the obvious as I hope/know every Wing in that locker room is.

Wings lost on an ill-timed (one could also call it “lazy” and “botched”) defense change, and a deflection off a skate in OT. That was the difference in this series, period, despite what the NBC f-wads would have you believe. Nobody thought we’d make the playoffs. Nobody thought we could ever beat the Ducks. Nobody thought we had a dream of a hope of a chance against the Hawks. We let a golden opportunity slip away, true, but Chicago is a heck of a team, and frankly, Crawford has never been as good as he was in the last 3 games. We started the 3rd period on absolute fire, and he had an answer for all but one of our chances. Howard did the same on the other end when the Hawks got out of their own end, eventually.

It was a helluva game, and a helluva series. I hoped our Western Conference Farewell Tour would have lasted longer (a trip thru San Jose would have been the dream scenario), but a rough break ended it tonite in OT.

I hold my head high as a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Detroit Red Wings, and look forward to their move to the East (despite the fact that I will probably never see them in another playoff series, living on the West Coast, as I do), because they will be the ONLY team in the East who know how to play defense!

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.